Took Smokey for a drive.

With the price of gas down............well not as high as it's been,  I decided to go for a drive.  I pulled one of the spark plugs out and it looked real good so that is one thing I won't think about for awhile.  The plugs look easier to get to than the 440.  And I think this thing is getting shorter as I am not as concerned about driving around town.  Then I took it out on I-5 for a short time.  It sure drives better than my '73 and I shouldn't complain but I wish the CC (cruise control) worked better.  When I put it on it looses about 5MPH and then slows down and finally shuts off. Something else to look into.  I would think it was just a vacuum leak but when I find out and get it fixed I would like it better.  Now after driving Wilbur for all these years I can get by without the CC it just would be nice to have it working.

The water lines are all blown out and the tanks drained.  I think I'm ready for Winter but I really would like some warm weather to seal up the roof better.  Not an big leaks in fact the only leak I seem to have is around the skylight.  

Winterizing and maintenance day. Some timing too.

Oh the weather outside is frightful.  Well really not that bad of a day and I really had some time to check out the whole timing thing and do the weatherizing I wanted to do.
I used my new timing mark on the bottom of the crank balancer and got the timing dialed in, as best as I can do.  The first thing I did was to adjust the choke so the big engine would idle down to what I figure would be a slow idle.  And once I had that set I had my soul mate give me a hand with the gas peddle.  So the mechanical advance seems to be working, and the vacuum advance kicks in where I think it should be too.  With the timing marks in a place that you could never see them I am sure they were never adjusted using those marks.
Something that gave me something to think about was on the carb next to the choke thermostat.

Holley application manual  Figure 5 shows what I am talking about.

Can you see the Choke Fresh air in take to the left of the choke thermostat.  Does that look like something should be connected to it?  Yea I thought so too but I guess not.

Once the idle, choke and timing advance was checked and adjusted I spent time winterizing.
When I was talking with my brother about blowing the water out of the water lines he told me about a fitting he was given that was not some cheap plastic thing but a metal fitting.  So here is what I built.

I don't really like the messy job someone did around the city water connection.  Just another job to do.

It is a garden hose fitting for a quick disconnect system that has been threaded for a 1/4" pipe thread.  Then I used an air tool fitting to connect to the air hose.
Now here is a deal for my loyal readers.  If you bring me the hose fitting I will thread it for FREE.  Yes this is a limited time deal and only if you act now, or at least until I break or loose my tap, then you too can have one of these.
And since the way I would winterize Wilbur was to pull up the garage door and drive it in, this was the first time I have done this.  I drained the fresh water tank, drained the water heater and blew out all the water lines to the sinks, shower and toilet.

I lubed the steps since they have not fully extended a couple of times.  It just might be needing some oil.  And I also spent some time looking at the under side of Smokey.  Boy if I had a nice warm day or two there are plenty of things to check over on a motor home this size.

I just went out and started Smokey.  The choke worked great but still stayed on longer than needed so I adjusted it some more.  Some of the vacuum hoses are hard, so I have been replacing them as I use up all the hose I buy.  But vacuum hose is cheap and easy to work with.  The story of my life, cheap and easy.

The 460 is one big old engine

Who would have ever thought that I needed another online forum to follow.  Now I have been sucked into the 460ford.com world.  What started out as just fixing up another old Bago has lead me down a road of playing with a whole new adventure.  So Smokey is running good, but I have been getting an education in big block Fords.  I do like to know how to fix things I drive and one reason I bought this Bago was because..............OK it was cheap and big.  But it is old enough to be able to work on.  And the 460 Ford boys really like those Big Blocks. 
That's where I am now.  Reading the 460 forum and learning about the engine. 
Today after having coffee with my flying friends, the weather was not good enough for flying, we met up with our daughter for lunch.  She is almost done with here nursing school and getting ready to go to work.  Anyone need a full time nurse?  She did have an interview with a large hospital this morning.
Maybe tomorrow I will have time to play with Smokey and have pictures and info on what I find.
If I get time to check out the timing and see if the vacuum advance and centrifugal advance works, I would feel better that things are working.  I might even get cute and check the TDC of the #1 piston and mark the crank for future use.
That's today's report.

More timing stuff

So today I really didn't do much on Smokey.  I did talk to the local Speed Shop guy about timing marks and he said just find TDC (top dead center) and put a mark on the crank balancer and some kind of pointer to line up with it.  Then you can put the other marks on the balancer to get the different degrees of advance.  So I lined up the original marks and tried my hand at painting a line but the paint went under the tape I used so I didn't take a picture.  Oh well maybe tomorrow I will spend some time on it.  What I really want to see is how the advance works or if it does work.  Then between how it starts hot and how it runs and even how the spark plugs look I should have an idea of how it is running.

And since the weather was clear we took the mustang out for a drive.  With the top down we got plenty of fresh air.  And a night time drive through the Christmas light display will be nice if we have a good night for it.

So keep checking back to see how things progress on the great Smokey fix up.

I adjusted the timing today

After adjusting the timing and taking it for a drive today I think it fixed the warm starting problem and it still runs good.  But there is another trick I read about when the timing marks are hidden.  Someone used a mirror and turned the engine over by hand to where the timing marks line up, and then put some marks somewhere else.  I will look into that another time.

Maybe I can paint a mark on the crank pulley and a mark on the front of the oil pan or above it,  They might even have timing mark pointer I could bolt to the oil pan bolts that would point to the crank pulley.  How about a nice chrome one, OOOHHHHH.


Here is one at Autozone.  Mr. Gasket $4.38
This might just work.

We put up some outdoor Christmas lights since it wasn't raining and I was just thinking about Christmas lights on Smokey.  Maybe I will look into that too.

I give up on the timing light

You would think that an old handyman guy like me would be able to find a way to use a timing light on this big old Ford engine to set the timing but I GIVE UP.  Yes I tried to see the marks by raising up the front end.  That is one nice thing about having power leveling jacks, and I turned the wheels all the way to the right but after looking at what I could remove to be able to see I give up.  I tried to use a mirror and decided that to adjust the timing by seeing how it drives and starts will be good enough.  Some day when I have driven it I will take out some spark plugs and look at them.  That way I should be able to see if it is running good or not.
And then when I finally find my special distributor wrench to loosen the hold down bolt, it doesn't fit.  Yes the bolt is a 1/2" and the wrench is 1/2" but the wrench is too thick to fit between the bolt and the dizzy shaft.  Well I know how to fix that and I grind some off.  Now it fits and I retard the timing some.  So far I haven't taken it for a drive but after running it there is no problem starting it up.
And that's my Sunday.  I did start out by having coffee with my flying friends at the club house and did Subway for lunch because Sophie had a lunch and movie with the girls.  Something about a fu fu place to eat and a sparkly vampire movie that is not my thing.  Give me a greasy cheap old motor home and I am happy.

The 460 and timing the engine

The other day I was looking around the top of the engine wondering what I will ever do if this things breaks down.  So I popped the dizzy (distributor) cap off and looked inside.  Things looked good inside and I was surprised that it was not full of electronics.  Maybe I could fix it if it broke.  It doesn't look like there is a computer to this thing, just electronic ignition.  And I think most of the control stuff is behind the front grill where it is easy to get to.  So take a look at the top side of the power plant.

There are way to many hoses and wires here.
One job I want to do is to check the engine timing.  This is even worse than checking the timing on Wilbur's 440.  One guy I read about used a mirror to see the timing marks.  Now that would be a trick but I am still working on a way to see the marks while the engine is running.
And I did think I broke my toy again, because when I first started it up after looking around at things it idled slower and had a miss.  I changed the dizzy cap and now it runs fine.  I think I might have not had all the plug wires connected good but I put a new cheap dizzy cap on and now have a spare.